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This shallow recharged water is then recovered as potable water and injected into the deep basalt aquifer. [citation needed] During the injection process, electrical energy can be generated by the head pressure of the water flowing back into the aquifer. This stored water is recovered during late summer and early autumn for irrigation needs.
Aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) is the storage and recovery of thermal energy in subsurface aquifers. ATES can heat and cool buildings. Storage and recovery is achieved by extraction and injection of groundwater using wells. Systems commonly operate in seasonal modes.
Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process, where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. This process usually occurs in the vadose zone below plant roots and is often expressed as a flux to the water table surface.
The specific storage is the amount of water that a portion of an aquifer releases from storage, per unit mass or volume of the aquifer, per unit change in hydraulic head, while remaining fully saturated. Mass specific storage is the mass of water that an aquifer releases from storage, per mass of aquifer, per unit decline in hydraulic head:
Groundwater recharge is an important process for sustainable groundwater management, since the volume-rate abstracted from an aquifer in the long term should be less than or equal to the volume-rate that is recharged. Recharge can help move excess salts that accumulate in the root zone to deeper soil layers, or into the groundwater system.
The natural process of aquifer recharge takes place through the percolation of surface water. An aquifer may be artificially recharged, such as by pumping reclaimed water from wastewater management projects directly into the aquifer. An example of is the Orange County Water District in California. [6]
There are regulatory storage-type aquifer recovery and storage systems which when water is injected into it gives the right to withdraw the water later on. [2] Groundwater banking has been implemented into semi-arid and arid southwestern United States because this is where there is the most need for extra water. [2]
Most aquifer storage facilities were developed when the price of natural gas was low, meaning this cushion gas was inexpensive to sacrifice. With rising gas prices aquifer storage becomes more expensive to develop. A consequence of the above factors is that developing an aquifer storage facility is usually time consuming and expensive.